“We lose the helicopters,” Irina countered. “That’s what we lose.”
Courtney chewed on that. “If we cancel the real minister, Bax can get ordained online so he won’t be grumpy,” Courtney continued her thoughts. “And then he can do the ceremony.” She grinned. “We may not need the paparazzi helicopters if we get you the cover ofPeoplemagazine. Something like this is actually a really good story.” She lifted her eyebrows. “This could work.”
“Isn’t it a little more eight-year-old birthday party and a whole lot less rock star wedding?” Irina might just have to accept portable restrooms as part of the background of the big day if the alternative was a kid’s pirate ship wedding.
“That’s the best thing about rock stars, you never know what they’re gonna do.” Courtney’s eyes glinted with what Irina hoped was not misplaced mischief. “We’ll go nuts with the twinkle lights for the reception. Still put up the tent for the guests. And we have a florist go bananas with flowers, this time they’ll just do it around the ship instead of Knox’s yard.”
“No paper pirate hats?” Irina confirmed.
“I cannot promise that Bax won’t start talking like a pirate during the ceremony.” Courtney did the baby bounce thing that calmed Harley right down. “But I can hide all of the paper hats.”
“What do I have to lose?”
“Right?” Courtney grinned. “If it ends up sucky, just tack on a fourth wedding.”
Irina laughed, but she didn’t quite feel the humor all the way in her soul.
Chapter Thirteen
KNOX
Meet-the-parents afternoon par-tayat Bax and Courtney’s digs started any second. Once the bride showed up, things would get serious.
Irina apparently took her party planning to the next level, because over the past days she’d found every excuse she could to add mini events to the big event.
“How’d carpet demo go?” Linx asked.
Knox made a gagging sound.
“That good, huh?” Linx pulled a face.
“Ripping out urine-scented carpet is about as much fun as it sounds,” Knox said. Folding his hands behind his head.
He’d viewed a few MyTube videos and figured it wasn’t that hard. Ten minutes in, he decided to let the professionals handle the demo. They had to have a better system than he’d come up with. His system being pull, then gag, then pull, then gag some more.
“Carpet isn’t going anywhere until the crew comes in,” he confirmed. Since the carpet wasn’t going anywhere for a while, he’d taken over his old room at Bax’s place. It worked because with all the family coming in, there was food everywhere. Good food. Lots of cookies, too.
No pie, but he held out hope that Irina would come through on that.
Staying here worked out, since Irina decided they should get married on the pirate ship in the backyard after all.
As a man who was once a third grader, he was automatically agreeable to getting married on playground equipment. Especially the kind where he could talk with a pirate accent, and no one would think he’d lost his marbles.
Besides, Courtney had all kinds of publicist-type ideas of how they could get him not-an-asshole articles taking the pirate ship angle.
Bowl of tortilla chips in one hand, and two smaller bowls of guac in the other, Linx dropped on the couch beside Knox. Right up in his space. Also holding no regard for personal space, Bax took the other side, holding a plate of little cucumber sandwiches.
They both wore black jeans and a T-shirt with a fancy suit screen-printed on the front. The only difference between their outfits and Knox’s was that the back of his had the wordGroom.
Bax’s readMinister. And then in tiny words underneath Courtney had added,I paid $5 for the certificate card.
What the hell, Knox laughed at it. Certificate cards came in handy and were absolutely worth the extra few bucks.
Linx’s readRing Bearer, since he’d walk Harley—their flower girl—down the aisle. Seeing as she was a baby and didn’t even crawl yet, she needed a lift.
Tanner and Mach were their groomsmen.
“Are you actually eating those things?” Knox eyed the tea sandwich platter because he seriously doubted whether those actually qualified as sandwiches. They’d been cut into sunflowers, which seemed an affront to all sandwiches everywhere.
